In an internal combustion engine control system many events are related to mechanical engine crankshaft position and some of these events are repeated at regular intervals during an engine cycle. For example, an ignition pulse has a repetition rate that depends on the number of cylinders in the engine, e.g., a four cylinder four stroke engine requires an ignition pulse to be generated every 180 engine degrees. If an engine position timebase with direct 0 degree to 720 degree is used, a 180 degree offset must be added to generate the next ignition event after each ignition event. Other engine events may occur at a repetition rate that is a different fraction of the complete engine cycle to the ignition events.
The known prior art includes generating a separate cylinder/ignition coil identifier control signal and an angular engine position identifier control signal interpolated from a clock timebase. The known prior art fails to provide a timebase encoding system that provides both multiple repetition cycles within an engine cycle and a reference to absolute engine cycle position.